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Hammond 
Genealogy  in  the  Library 


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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

Ex  Librls 

Katharine  F,  Richmond 

and 

Henry  C.  Fall 


W'mi;^ 


Qeneahgy 
Jfn  J'he  J^ibrary 


OTIS    C.    HAMMOND 

OF     TMC     

New  Hampshire  State  Library 


MANCHESTER,  N.  H. 
John  B.  Clarke  Co. 
.-.    .-.    .-.   .-.    11,06.    ,-.   .-.    .-.    .-. 


vi-i*uijtf»H 


Qenealogy 
J}n  Jhe  JCibrart/ 


a  Y 


OTIS    G.    H  AMMOND 

OF     THE     

NEW  Hampshire  State  Library 


MANCHESTER,  N.  H. 
John  B.  Clarke  Co. 
.-.   .-.   .-.  .-.    1906.    .-.  .-.    .-.   .-. 


Read  before  the 
New  Hampshire  Library 
Association  Dec.  12, 1905. 


cs 

GENEALOGY  IN  THE  LIBRARY. 

What  is  genealogy? 

Dr.  Henry  K.  Stiles,  an  old-time  geneal- 
ogist of  long  experience,  says:  "Genealogy 
is  the  science  of  personal  identification. 
It  has  for  its  object  the  discovery  and  per- 
manent establishment,  by  proofs  and  evi- 
dences which  would  be  conclusive  in  any 
court  of  law,  of  the  identity  of  the  individ- 
ual, both  in  his  relations  to  those  who  have 
preceded  him  and  to  those  who  may  succeed 
him  in  his  own  particular  family  line,  as 
well  as  in  his  relations  to  those  belonging 
to  collateral  lines  of  the  general  family  of 
which  he  and  they  are  members." 

Most  of  you  who  have  had  any  experi- 
ence with  the  amateur  seeker  after  gen- 
ealogical information  vnW  answer  that 
genealogy  is  an  infernal  nuisance.  And  so 
it  is  in  the  hands  of  some  people.  There 
is  hardly  a  subject  in  the  whole  realm  of 
human  knowledge  on  which  so  many  sense- 
less questions  are  asked,  foolish  statements 
made,  and  idiotic  letters  written. 

Almost  everybody  is,  in  his  own  esti- 
mation, qualiiied  to  do  genealogical  work  if 
he  feels  like  it.  "It  is  very  simple,"  he  saj-s. 
"You  find  out  who  your  father  was,  and 
then  his  father,  and  so  on."  And  this  is  as 
far  as  many  of  them  get  before  they  cease 
to  feel  like  it.  Others  persevere,  and  get 
back  to  the  Revolution,  where  they  rest 
satisfied,  assuring  themselves  that  this  is 
far  enough,  and  that  the  rest  doesn't 
amount  to  anything,  anyhow.  But  there 
are  some  who  are  possessed  of  a  true  genea- 
logical instinct,  who  will  follow  a  trail 
through  the  darkest  tangles  of  vital  rec- 
ords and  archives  with  the  keen  scent  of  a 
hound,  passing  cross  trails  and  false  leads 
with  a  sniff,  until  finally  they  pounce  upon 


1066634 


their  quarry  and  drag  it  forth  to  be  wor- 
ried and  torn  to  pieces  by  the  rest  of  the 
jealous  pack.  These  are  true  genealogists, 
men  and  women  who  do  good  work,  and 
leave  behind  them  monuments  of  patience 
and  industry  but  no  money. 

Good  work  in  genealogy  never  was  done 
solely  for  the  money  it  might  bring  to  the 
compiler,  but  the  best  is  brought  forth  by 
the  genuine  enthusiast,  who  does  it  because 
the  intricate  problems  of  personal  identity 
have  for  him  a  fascination  and  an  excite- 
ment which  no  other  occupation  on  earth 
can  afford.  You  may  say  that  there  are 
professional  genealogists  who  work  for 
money,  and  who  will  not  open  their  lips 
until  their  palms  are  crossed  with  a  green- 
back. This  is  true,  and  most  of  them  do 
good  work,  but  I  venture  to  say  there  is 
not  one  among  their  numbers  who  was  not 
led  into  genealogy  by  a  love  for  it  as  a 
science  rather  than  by  a  sole  regard  for  the 
dollars  it  might  bring  to  him.  The  enthu- 
siasm of  the  professional  gives  him  experi- 
ence, and  experience  makes  him  expert  in 
the  knowledge  of  methods,  in  judgment  of 
authorities,  and  in  the  sources  of  informa- 
tion. There  is  a  ready  demand  for  his  ser- 
vices, so  he  sells  his  labor  as  we  do  ours, 
and  finds  an  agreeable  way  of  providing 
his  family  with  the  necessaries  and  com- 
forts of  life. 

In  speaking  of  genealogy  I  include  all 
search  after  ancestors,  whether  for  the  pur- 
pose of  gaining  admission  into  a  hereditary 
society,  tracing  title  to  imaginary  property 
in  England,  personal  gratification,  or  com- 
piling a  family  history. 

When  anybody  comes  to  you  for  help 
first  find  out  exactly  what  he  wants.  If  he 
does  not  know,  and  many  do  not,  find  out 
what  he  does  know,  and  then  tell  him  what 


he  wants.  Some  people  go  to  a  librarian 
with  such  simplicity  and  trustfulness  that 
it  is  really  affecting-.  I  received  a  letter  one 
day  from  a  woman  somewhere  out  West, 
asking  for  the  Revolutionary  service  of  her 
great-grandfather.  She  said  she  did  not 
know  his  name,  nor  where  he  lived,  and  she 
was  not  sure  that  he  was  in  the  Revolution, 
but  she  wanted  to  join  the  Daughters  of 
the  American  Revolution.  I  thought  she 
was  giving  me  very  little  information  as  a 
guide  in  my  search,  and  looked  at  the  end 
of  the  letter  to  see  what  her  own  name 
was,  what  family  she  belonged  to,  but  she 
had  signed  her  married  name. 

You  will  find  that  many  beginners  start 
with  strange  ideas  and  extraordinary  be- 
liefs of  the  greatness  of  their  ancestors, 
although  this  is  not  as  generally  true  today 
as  it  was  a  few  years  ago.  We  can  all  re- 
member the  time  when  everybody  claimed 
to  be  descended  from  one  of  three  brothers 
who  came  to  America  together.  There 
were  more  brothers  who  came  to  this  coun- 
try in  bunches  of  three  than  there  were  old 
chairs  in  the  Mayflower.  It  is  not,  however, 
a  proper  part  of  your  duty  to  attempt  to 
correct  these  fancies,  for  by  so  doing  you 
will  quickly  find  yourself  in  a  very  disagree- 
able and  useless  controversy,  which  will 
destroy  j'our  usefulness  in  the  case.  Your 
student  will  probably  be  positive  and  intol- 
erant, but  this  will  simply  emphasize  his  in- 
experience. As  he  progresses  and  develops 
in  his  work  he  will  soon  be  forced  to  aban- 
don his  ideas  by  finding  that  his  family,  as 
a  whole,  was  made  up  of  plain,  ordinary 
people  with,  perhaps,  an  occasional  instance 
of  unusual  ability,  such  a  family  as  anybody 
has  a  right  to  expect.  He  will  undoubtedly 
find  some  individuals  of  whom  he  will  not 
care  to  boast. 

6 


Although  strange  cases  are  not  as  numor- 
ous  as  they  once  were,  they  do  occasionallj' 
appear,  and  sometimes  they  amount  almost 
to  insanity.  A  woman  called  on  me  one 
day  in  great  haste  for  a  certified  copy  of 
some  document  which  I  could  not  find  to 
exist.  She  said  that  it  was  the  last  link  in 
her  chain  of  evidence  to  prove  her  claim 
to  an  estate  in  England,  her  share  of  which 
was  to  be  eighty  million  dollars.  Finally 
she  found  something  else  which  she  said 
would  do  just  as  well ;  but  the  ofiice  of  the 
Secretary  of  State  was  closed,  and  the 
copy  must  be  certified  somehow,  so.  to 
please  her,  I  attached  the  certificate  of  a 
notary  public,  stamped  it  with  my  seal,  and 
she  went  away  perfectlj^  satisfied.  And 
I  have  got  to  wait  for  my  notary's  fee  until 
she  gets  her  eighty  millions. 

Mr.  Collins,  hod-carrier,  came  in  another 
day,  and  wanted  some  book  that  would  tell 
him  about  the  early  kings  of  Ireland.  Mr. 
Collins  is  one  of  the  very  few  unconsciously 
funny  Irishmen  that  I  have  ever  known. 
He  told  the  tale  that  once  upon  a  time  the 
kings  of  Ireland  claimed  title  to  the  soil 
of  Denmark,  but  they  did  not  possess 
the  land.  Nevertheless,  in  assertion  of  their 
title,  it  was  customary  to  bestow  portions 
of  that  country  as  wedding  gifts  on  their 
sons  and  daughters,  in  the  full  belief  that 
some  day  they  would  again  come  into  actual 
possession.  "They  till  me  I  am  of  ryal 
blude,"  said  Mr.  Collins,  and  he  wanted  to 
find  his  piece  of  Denmark. 

These  are  extraordinary  cases,  and  not 
to  be  looked  for  in  our  every-day  library 
work.  But,  perhaps,  some  day  a  portly, 
positive  woman  will  come  in  and  say,  "I 
want  to  find  the  Revolutionary  record  of 
my  great-grandfather.  He  was  a  colonel  in 
the   Revolution."     You   find  no   mention   of 


6 


any  such  colonel  in  the  Revolutionary  rolls, 
but  you  may  find  a  corporal  or  a  private 
of  the  name  she  gives  you;  and  you  ask: 
"How  do  you  know  he  was  a  colonel? 
Where  did  you  find  your  authority?"  She 
immediately  bristles  up  and  replies:  "Why, 
we  have  always  been  told  in  our  family, 
right  straight  down,  that  he  was  a  colonel. 
My  father  told  me  so  when  he  was  ninety- 
eight  3'ears  old,  and  I  guess  he  wouldn't 
lie.  And  we  know  it  is  so,  anyway,  because 
we  have  got  his  gun." 

Of  the  treatment  oi  genealogical  inquiries 
there  is  not  much  to  be  said.  Naturally 
you  would  first  look  for  a  published  geneal- 
ogy of  the  family,  or  a  history  of  the  town 
in  which  they  were  located.  If  both  of 
these  fail,  then  your  client  is  in  difficulty, 
and  must  search  at  large  for  his  informa- 
tion, in  original  town,  church,  and  family 
records,  wills  and  deed,  biographical 
sketches,  and  the  whole  vast  body  of  pub- 
lished and  unpublished  material  which  is 
now  accessible  to  the  student.  He  must 
keep  his  problems  always  in  mind  and 
never  despair,  for  often  facts  long  sought 
for  are  found  in  strange  places,  to  which 
the  most  analj'tical  mind  in  the  world 
would  never  be  led  by  the  most  finished 
process  of  reasoning. 

Only  a  few  days  ago  a  friend  in  New 
York,  to  whom  I  had  sent  some  notes  from 
our  early  deeds,  wrote  me  that  one  of  these 
deeds  probably  revealed  the  name  of  the 
wife  of  John  Bean  of  Exeter,  a  name 
which  the  Bean  family  association  had 
been  seeking  for  years,  under  the  leadership 
of  the  late  Judge  Drummond  of  Portland, 
a  most  accurate  and  thorough  genealogist. 
I  found  that  my  friend  was  right,  and  that, 
not  by  one  deed  alone,  but  by  comparing 
two  deeds,  I  could  trace  a  distinct  line  from 


the  ancestor  he  was  seeking  back  to  John 
Bean,  his  wife,  and  his  wife's  father.  None 
of  the  Bean  family  being  a  party  to  either 
of  these  deeds,  the  name  was  not  indexed, 
and  neither  my  friend  nor  I  was  particu- 
larly interested  in  Beans  unless  they  were 
baked.  Such  purely  accidental  discoveries 
occasionally  happen,  and  the  student  is  jus- 
tified in  looking  almost  anywhere  for  his 
facts,  for  they  may  be  there. 

The  busy  librarian  or  assistant  is  obliged 
to  make  it  a  general  rule  not  to  conduct 
genealogical  research  for  his  patrons,  un- 
less they  may  choose  to  leave  the  matter 
in  his  hands,  to  be  done  in  moments  of  lei- 
sure or  after  library  hours.  During  the 
library  day  it  is  very  unwise  to  attempt 
to  do  more  than  guide  the  student,  for,  if 
you  once  become  involved,  one  question 
leads  to  another,  one  generation  to  the 
next,  until  you  discover  that  half  your  day 
has  been  spent,  perhaps  to  little  purpose, 
and  your  own  work  stands  untouched. 
Give  the  amateur  student  the  books  that 
will  help  him,  answer  all  the  questions  he 
may  ask,  but  let  him  do  his  own  searching. 
If  necessary,  show  him  how  to  use  indexes, 
and  explain  to  him  the  plan  of  sequence 
used  in  the  genealogies  he  is  consulting, 
but  let  him  use  the  books  himself.  He  may 
prove  to  be  incapable  of  following  a  line 
of  ancestry,  but,  if  this  be  so,  the  sooner 
he  ceases  the  attempt  the  less  harm  he  will 
do  by  making  untrue  records  for  the  use  of 
other  members  of  his  family,  who,  not  hav- 
ing the  sources  of  information  at  hand, 
may  depend  on  his  work  as  accurate. 

In  genealogy,  errors  once  in  print  are 
propagated  to  a  degree  impossible  in  any 
other  work.  All  genealogical  facts  must  first 
come  from  some  original  record,  which  can 
exist  in   only   one   place.     Therefore,   when 


8 


this  record  is  printed,  the  printed  copy  is 
accepted  by  most  people  in  lieu  of  the  origi- 
nal, for  the  saving  of  time  and  expense 
involved  in  a  journey  to  the  manuscript.  If 
there  is  an  error  in  this  print  it  is  copied 
and  recopied,  and  woven  into  genealogies  of 
allied  families  until  a  web  of  falsity  has 
been  created  which  can  never  be  entirely 
destroj-ed.  The  first  and  absolutely  essen- 
tial qualification  of  a  genealogist  is  accu- 
racy, and  the  second  is  industry. 

It  is  not  now  possible  for  any  city  or 
town  library  in  this  state  to  acquire  much 
of  a  genealogical  library.  These  books  are 
very  expensive,  and  it  requires  a  large  num- 
ber to  be  effective  in  supplying  the  wants 
of  any  prospective  student  who  may  chance 
to  apply.  But  if  you  do  have  such  inquiries 
there  are  two  or  three  books  which  you 
can  have,  and  which  you  cannot  do  with- 
out. Munsell's  Genealogical  Index,  the  last 
edition  of  which  was  issued  in  1900,  gives 
references  under  each  familj^  name  to  all 
the  genealogy  relating  to  that  family  which 
is  printed  in  individual  volumes,  town  and 
county  histories,  the  New  England  Histor- 
ical and  Genealogical  Register,  and  a  few  of 
the  more  important  genealogical  works  of 
a  general  scope.  Munsell's  List  of  Titles 
in  Genealogical  Periodicals,  1899,  gives  a 
list  of  genealogical  articles  published  in 
various  periodicals.  With  these  as  guides 
your  student  can  easily  select  those  books 
which  will  be  of  assistance  to  him,  and  you 
can  obtain  them  from  the  State  Library. 

Probably  the  motive  of  most  of  the 
genealogical  inquiries  you  may  receive  will 
be  the  gaining  of  admission  into  some 
hereditarj'  societjs  and  the  motive  of  most 
of  these  efforts  is  purely  social  or  personal. 
Perhaps  I  am  led  to  believe  in  the  less 
worthy  motive  as  inciting  people  to  a  study 

9 


of  their  family  histories  by  the  fact  that  in 
my  experience  so  many  of  those  who  come 
to  me  for  help  and  advice  in  beginning  such 
research  first  ask  for  information  of  some 
ancestor  to  whom  they  ascribe  some  note- 
worthy deed  or  some  distinguished  title. 
He  was  a  Eevolutionary  soldier  at  least, 
and  generally  an  officer  of  high  ranlt;  or  he 
was  a  judge,  or  a  councillor,  or  a  governor, 
as  proved  by  family  tradition;  and  it  has 
fallen  to  my  lot  to  explode  many  a  good 
old  tale  of  pride  handed  down  from  gen- 
eration to  generation  bj'^  proving  from  the 
records  that  the  colonel  was  a  corporal,  or 
the  judge  a  justice  of  the  peace. 

Some  people  take  the  other  extreme,  and 
scoff  at  all  mention  of  family  history  or 
ancestral  dignity,  and  say  that  it  is  only 
what  one  does  himself  that  he  has  any 
right  to  be  proud  of.  A  friend  of  mine  was 
one  afternoon  attending  a  pink  tea,  or  a 
sewing  circle,  or  something  of  that  sort, 
where  the  matter  of  family  pride  was  dis- 
cussed. She  expressed  her  opinion  very 
forcibly  to  the  eflPect  that  the  whole  thing 
was  nonsense,  and  finished  by  saying: 
"Why,  I  should  not  feel  a  bit  proud  if  I 
found  out  that  I  was  descended  from — er — 
er — Queen  Elizabeth." 

So  she  vindicated  her  theory  that  one's 
reputation  is  made  onl^^  by  what  he  does 
himself.  That  one  saying  of  hers  made  her 
more  famous  in  her  city  than  all  the  deeds 
oi  all  her  ancestors. 

Every  family  line  will  include  some  black 
sheep,  for  our  ancestors  were  human,  like 
ourselves,  and  subject  to  error.  Unless  a 
genealogist  is  governed  by  a  false  pride  in 
the  family  he  is  writing,  black  sheep  will 
receive  the  same  treatment  as  white,  and 
all  facts  will  be  accurately  stated,  whether 
good   or  bad.     Any  attempt   to  cover  up  a 


10 


moral  obliquity  by  the  changing  of  a  date, 
or  the  omission  of  a  date  or  an  essential 
fact,  is  a  genealogical  sin.  The  mistakes  of 
our  forefathers  need  not  be  made  unduly 
prominent,  and  many  of  them  it  may  not 
be  necessary  to  mention.  But  the  neces- 
sary facts  of  human  life,  such  as  parentage, 
date  and  place  of  birth  and  death,  record 
of  marriage,  dates  of  birth  and  names  of 
children,  if  known,  cannot  rightly  be 
changed  or  omitted,  whether  they  indicate 
any  deviation  from  the  path  of  righteous- 
ness or  not. 

Many  of  the  black  sheep  of  two  hundred 
years  ago  would  be  quite  blonde  in  our  day. 
If  we  find  our  forefathers  figuring  in  the 
court  records  of  long  ago,  we  should  do 
them  the  justice  to  remember  that  they 
lived  under  very  different  laws  and  customs 
from  oui-s,  and  that  many  things  which 
now  pass  unnoticed  were  then  solemnly  and 
severely  dealt  with  by  the  magistrate.  The 
list  of  capital  crimes  was  long  and  strange. 
In  our  first  code  of  law  in  New  Hampshire, 
enacted  in  1679-80,  idolatry,  blasphemy, 
treason,  rebellion,  murder,  Avitchcraft,  bes- 
tiality, and  false  witness  "to  take  away  a 
man's  life"  were  punishable  by  death  with- 
out alternative;  and  kidnapping,  rebellious 
or  stubborn  conduct  by  children  sixteen 
years  old  or  more  towards  their  parents, 
rape,  and  arson,  bj!^  death  "or  some  other 
grievous  punishment."  Swearing,  lying,  de- 
stroying of  fences,  and  speaking  contemptu- 
ously of  the  Scriptures  or  of  the  minister 
were  heavily  fined.  In  the  Cranfield  code 
of  1682  it  is  laid  down  that  "Whosoever  shall 
on  the  Lord's  day  be  found  to  do  unneces- 
sary servile  labour,  travell,  sport  or  fre- 
quent Ordinaries  in  time  of  public  worship, 
or  idely  straggle  abroad;  The  person  so 
offending  shall  pay  a  fine  of  Ten  shillings, 


11 


or  be  set  in  the  stocks  an  hour.  And  for 
discovery  of  such  Offenders,  It  Is  Ordered, 
That  the  Constable  with  some  other  meet 
person  whom  he  shall  choose.  Shall  in  the 
time  of  public  worship  go  forth  to  any  sus- 
pected places  within  their  Precincts  to  find 
out  any  offender  as  above,  &  when  found 
to  return  their  names  to  some  Justice  of 
the  Peace,  who  shall  forthwith  send  for 
such  Offender,  &  deal  with  him  accord- 
ing-  to   Law." 

Our  Sunday  afternoon  walk  was  forbid- 
den as  idly  straggling  abroad.  What  a  day 
Sunday  must  have  been,  especially  for  the 
children!  There  were  practically  no  books 
among  the  common  people  except  the  Bible, 
and  these  were  so  scarce  that  they  were 
often  specially  devised  in  wills,  like  the 
feather  beds,  and  the  iron  pots  and  brass 
kettles,  the  most  highly  prized  articles  of 
all  the  household  furniture  and  utensils, 
because,  I  suppose,  they  were  the  most  dif- 
ficult to  get.  Many  of  our  ancestors  had  to 
sign  their  names  by  mark,  and  could  not 
have  read  books  if  they  had  had  them. 
Happilj'  a  large  part  of  the  Lord's  day  was 
taken  up  by  two  meetings,  with  two  long 
sermons,  strong  ones,  too,  smelling  of  fire 
and  brimstone.  The  minister  was  generally 
the  only  man  of  1  ook-learning  in  the  town, 
until  later,  when  the  settlements  enlarged 
and  comparative  wealth  increased.  Then 
came  the  Squire,  in  most  cases  a  man  who 
had  acquired  a  comfortable  property  and 
a  fair  degree  of  education  for  the  times. 

It  sometimes  seems  as  if  genealogy  were 
a  sort  of  contagious  disease,  the  germs  of 
which  lie  dormant  in  ancient  records,  and 
are  propagated  by  the  art  of  the  printer; 
and  it  often  happens  that  the  innocent  vic- 
tim, while  satisfying  a  mere  curiosity  by 
looking   for   some   single   fact,   becomes   in- 


12 


fected,  and  soon  develops  the  fever  in  its 
most  violent  form.  He  never  recovers,  for 
the  disease  is  incurable,  and  it  is  in  this 
way  that  the  best  genealogist  is  made.  He 
gives  to  it  all  his  spare  moments,  and  many 
that  he  cannot  spare.  He  pursues  his  own 
ancestors  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and 
then  comes  back  and  begins  on  his  wife's. 
Some  live  long  enough  to  do  both.  It  de- 
pends largely  on  what  kind  of  a  compro- 
mise one  can  make  with  his  conscience, 
to  enable  himself  to  leave  some  things  un- 
done. For,  although  in  theory  genealogy  is 
an  exact  science,  in  practice  it  is  most  va- 
riable and  imperfect.  A  complete  genealogy 
of  a  family  never  has  been  written,  and 
never  will  be.  Early  records  are  compara- 
tively meagre,  and  once  written  in  that 
way  they  can  never  be  perfected.  It  is  not 
until  recent  years  that  complete  records  of 
births,  marriages,  and  deaths  have  been 
kept  in  any  of  our  towns  or  states.  What 
of  such  records  we  do  find  we  should  ap- 
preciate as  having  been  kept  voluntarily, 
for  the  laws  on  this  subject,  when  any  ex- 
isted, were  of  little  effect.  I  do  not  say 
this  to  the  discredit  of  the  past,  for  there 
was  abundant  reason  for  neglect.  In  the 
first  place  no  system  of  keeping  such  rec- 
ords was  provided  by  government.  In  the 
second  place  our  ancestors  were  far  too 
busy  with  other  affairs  of  greater  conse- 
quence to  their  own  hard  existence  to  give 
much  time  and  attention  to  the  keeping  of 
records  for  the  convenience  of  the  future. 
They  were  struggling  with  the  forces  of 
nature  to  wrest  a  bare  subsistence  from 
the  soil.  They  were,  here  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, pushing  new  settlements  into  the 
west  and  north,  and  bringing  up  large 
families  of  children  in  the  wilderness.  The 
land  had  first  to  be  cleared  of  the  forest. 


13 


and  the  first  year  corn  was  planted  among 
the  stumps.  Later  the  stumps  had  to  be 
cut  out  or  burned,  and  the  stones  picked 
up,  before  a  crop  of  hay  could  be  raised, 
unless  the  settler  was  fortunate  enough  to 
own  a  piece  of  meadow  land.  Housed  in  log 
huts  in  the  far  regions  of  what  are  now 
Cheshire,  Sullivan,  Grafton,  Belknap,  Car- 
roll, and  Coos  counties,  buried  in  snow  dur- 
ing the  winter,  and  beset  on  all  sides  by 
wild  beasts  and  still  more  savage  Indians, 
they  could  give  to  the  making  of  records 
but  little  of  the  precious  time  required  by 
the  axe,  the  plough,  and  the  gun. 

Even  now  our  records  do  not  cover  the 
whole  field  of  genealogical  inquiry.  One  of 
the  greatest  obstacles  to  successful  geneal- 
ogy  is  the  difficulty  in  tracing  families  in 
their  movements  from  town  to  town.  This 
is  something  which  never  was  a  subject  of 
record,  and  is  not  today.  Our  record  sys- 
tem would  be  vastly  improved  by  the  en- 
actment of  a  law  requiring  that  before 
any  person  shall  remove  his  residence  from 
a  town  he  shall  file  with  the  town  clerk  a 
statement  of  his  intention,  stating  his  name, 
and  the  names  of  the  members  of  his  fam- 
ily who  are  to  accompany  him,  the  place 
to  which  they  are  going,  and  the  date  of 
removal.  The  same  law  should  require  him 
to  file  similar  information,  on  arrival,  with 
the  clerk  of  the  town  to  which  he  goes,  stat- 
ing the  place  of  his  former  residence. 

The  wonderful  activity  in  genealogical  re- 
search which  has  prevailed  for  the  last  fif- 
teen or  twenty  j-ears  is  due,  I  think,  very 
largely  to  the  hereditary  societies,  com- 
posed of  the  descendants  of  those  who  took 
part  in  some  of  the  great  events  in  Amer- 
ican history,  like  the  Revolution  and  "the 
colonial  wars,  or  of  those  who  settled  in 
this     country     during    its     earliest    years. 


1^ 


These  societies  were  founded,  nominally,  for 
the  malving-  and  preservation  of  historical 
and  genealogical  recprds,  and  thereby  to 
foster  in  the  hearts  of  present  and  future 
generations  a  respect  for  the  flag  and  a 
love  of  country  by  holding  up  to  them  the 
heroic  deeds  and  motives  of  their  fore- 
fathers, and  the  sufferings  and  hardships 
they  endured  in  establishing  the  govern- 
ment under  which  we  now  live. 

These  societies  have,  in  the  aggregate, 
done  an  immense  amount  of  valuable  work, 
and  deserve  far  more  credit  than  the  pub- 
lic seems  willing  to  allow  them.  Many  peo- 
ple are  able  to  see  in  them  only  a  manifes- 
tation of  personal  vanity,  a  desire  to  prove 
one's  self  a  little  better  than  his  fellow 
man.  This  element  does  certainly  exist  in 
a  large  degree,  and  probably,  if  the  truth 
were  told,  has  had  a  greater  influence  in 
the  starting  of  hereditary  organizations 
than  the  more  commendable  idea  of  teach- 
ing patriotism  to  our  children  by  the  ex- 
amples of  history.  But  this  should  not 
blind  our  eyes  to  the  great  good  which  has 
been  accomplished.  Few  men  can  be  mem- 
bers of  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution 
without  learning  more  of  the  history  of  the 
Revolution  than  they  knew  before. 

But  these  societies  have  their  dangers  as 
well  as  their  benefits,  and  if  the  idea  of 
heredity  is  allowed  to  predominate  over 
the  legitimate  purposes  of  these  organiza- 
tions as  laid  down  in  their  charters,  the 
result  can  be  nothing  but  disastrous  to  our 
social  and  economic  principles.  We  have  no 
titled  class  in  this  countrj%  and  we  boast 
that  we  have  no  aristocracy  but  that  of 
money.  This  is  not  exactly  true.  Geneal- 
ogy has  emphasized  the  idea  of  heredity, 
and  every  community  already  has  its  mem- 
bers  who   view   themselves   as   of   a   better 


15 


class  than  the  others.  Their  reasons  may 
be  blood,  money,  culture,  education,  em- 
ployment, or  religion.  Our  salvation  at 
present  is  in  the  fact  that  these  people  are 
not  united  in  one  class.  The  foundation 
principle  of  aristocracy  abroad  is  the  in- 
heritance of  blood  from  ancestors  who 
were  themselves  aristocrats.  New  titles  are 
bestowed  on  persons  of  plebeian  origin,  but 
a  title  alone  does  not  admit  its  owner  to 
the  inner  circles  of  the  realm,  and  in  many 
cases  it  takes  generations  of  patient  and 
persistent  effort  to  secure  general  recogni- 
tion of  social  superiority. 

The  orders  bestowed  on  favorite  or  dis- 
tinguished subjects  by  the  monarchs  of 
Europe  are  only  memberships  in  certain 
societies,  whose  privileges  largely  consist 
in  the  wearing  of  decorations  on  public  oc- 
casions, and  the  writing  of  many  letters 
after  the  recipients'  names.  We  have  al- 
ready adopted  the  wearing  of  decorations 
to  a  certain  degree,  and  may  in  time  use 
the  initial  letters.  But  we  have  gone  far 
enough.  If  the  members  of  these  societies 
lose  sight  of  the  genuine  historical  purpose 
of  their  charters,  and  allow  the  length  of 
their  pedigrees  to  absorb  their  ideas  and 
efforts,  then  we  shall  lack  only  the  unity 
of  organization  to  perfect  an  aristocracy  as 
powerful  and  dominant  as  that  in  any  coun- 
try of  the  old   world. 

I  began  with  a  definition  of  genealogy, 
and  I  am  going  to  end  with  one.  John  A. 
Vinton,  another  historian  and  genealogist 
of  the  old  school,  has  given  to  us  a  defini- 
tion and  an  appreciation  of  genealogy  so 
beautiful  that  I  cannot  resist  the  opportu- 
nity to  read  it  to  you. 

"Genealogy  is  the  natural  outcome  of 
that  inherent  disposition  in  man  which 
leads  him  to  seek  for  and  preserve  the  me- 


16 


morials  of  his  ancestors  in  connection  with 
those  relating  to  himself.  This  disposition 
springs  from  an  immutable  necessity  of 
man's  existence,  since  God,  as  the  crown- 
ing act  of  His  work  of  creation,  established 
the  family  relation,  in  itself  the  very  cor- 
ner-stone of  all  human,  social,  political,  and 
religious  organization.  In  God's  system  of 
creation  and  government  the  family  rela- 
tion, which  was  inaugurated  by  the  pri- 
meval marriage  of  Adam  and  Eve,  was  a 
unit  in  form,  dual  as  to  parentage,  germi- 
nal as  to  its  nature,  being  the  seed-bud  or 
appointed  means  for  the  extension  of  the 
human  race.  It  was  evidently  designed  by 
its  divine  founder  as  a  normal  relation,  and 
as  one  especially  adapted  to  the  wants  and 
welfare  of  the  race.  From  it  arise  a  thou- 
sand social  relations,  duties,  comforts,  and 
delights  to  benefit  and  bless  mankind.  It 
forms,  indeed,  the  very  bed-rock  on  which 
all  human  institutions  are  founded,  without 
which  the  world  would  be  a  mere  chaos  of 
human  beings. 

"The  family  as  thus  instituted  by  God 
was  a  type  foreshadowing  (1)  the  school,  in 
the  nurture  and  education  of  children;  (2) 
the  state,  in  which  mature  human  life  de- 
velops its  powers  in  multifold  relations  and 
ways;  and  (3)  the  church,  or  that  condition 
of  spiritual  life  in  which  man  is  brought 
into;  intimate  relations  with  his  Maker. 
Tl) rough  this  fourfold  warp  and  woof  of 
family,  school,  state,  and  church  runs  the 
central  principle  of  obedience  to  a  higher 
and  properly  constituted  authority,  man's 
first  great  lesson  in  life,  linking  him,  as 
it  were,  by  a  golden  thread  of  analogy, 
both  to  his  Infinite  Creator  and  to  his  fel- 
low man.  The  necessitj'  of  obedience  to  a 
higher  and  properly  constituted  authority 
thus  confronts  man  at  the  very  threshold 


r, 


of  life,  in  the  family,  'Honor  thy  father 
and  thy  mother'  is  not  alone  the  injunction 
of  the  Christian  Bible,  but  is  enunciated 
with  equal  force  in  the  holy  book  of  all 
ancient  religions.  This  fifth  commandment 
of  the  Decalogue,  standing  foremost  in  the 
second  table  of  the  law  as  delivered  to 
Moses,  is  the  analogue  and  the  logical 
sequence  of  the  first  coromandment,  'Thou 
shalt  have  no  other  gods  beside  Me,'  which 
heads  the  first  table,  and  includes  all  the 
moral  precepts  which  follow.  For  it  is 
evident  that  the  man  who  does  not  honor 
his  parents  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  a  truly 
moral  man  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  term. 
Our  habits  of  obedience  or  of  disobedience 
to  the  law  of  God  begin  right  here.  For 
our  parents,  with  whom  our  earliest  human 
relations  connect  us,  stand  to  us,  for  a 
time,  in  the  place  of  God;  and  reverence  for 
parents  thus  becomes  an  essential  element 
of  a  sound  moral  character.  Keflecting, 
then,  upon  the  fact  that  what  our  parents 
are  to  us  their  parents  were  to  them,  and 
that  what  our  parents  were  they  owed,  un- 
der God,  to  the  care  they  received  from  the 
natural  guardians  of  their  being,  and  that 
the  same  holds  true  through  all  the  gener- 
ations of  the  past,  we  are  led  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  fifth  commandment  binds 
us  to  honor  and  reverence  all  our  ancestors, 
so  far  as  known  to  us,  and  so  far  as  these 
ancestors  were  worthy  of  such  regard." 

It  is  no  longer  necessary  to  apologize  for 
genealogy,  as  it  was  when  this  was  written, 
but  I  think  we  may  accept  it  as  a  fair  and 
merited  tribute.  "He  that  has  no  regard 
for  his  ancestors  does  not  deserve  to  be  re- 
membered by  his  posterity." 


18 


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